Krug 2003 Champagne 75cl

The potential for a Krug vintage champagne is identified during the blending of Krug Grande Cuvée. Once the non-vintage blend has been secured and all of the reserves earmarked, the wines displaying the most pronounced character of the vintage are blended to create the vintage champagne. As it was not produced in 2003, the Pinot Noir which would otherwise have gone into the Clos d'Ambonnay blend was instead used in Krug 2003.

Krug ID: 113015 | Each bottle of Krug 2003 has a Krug ID on the back label which enables you to discover the story of that very bottle. You can do so using the smartphone App or on the Krug website.

Weather: The 2003 vintage was a year of many circumstances: dry winter and spring, very premature blooming, two serious frosts and a summer of scorching heat. With small yields, healthy grapes, extremely varied levels of maturity and over and under-ripeness, it was Krug's respect of the individual expression of every plot that produced surprisingly fresh, aromatic and balanced wines. Krug decided to create a vintage for this particular year and named it "Vivacité Solaire" (Vivacious Radiance).

News Article: Read more about Krug 2003 in the review of our Krug Vertical Tasting with Olivier Krug and Jancis Robinson MW here.

Technical Information:
Vineyards: 100% Grand & Premier Cru | Pinot Noir: Montagne de Reims | Chardonnay: Côte des Blancs | Pinot Meunier: Courmas, Saint Gemme, Villevenard
Grape Varieties: 46% Pinot Noir, 29% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Meunier
Ageing: 9 years on the lees
Disgorged: Winter 2012/2013
Dosage: 6 g/l
Drink: Now to 2026

Tasting Note: Expressive aromas of citrus, plum, honey and brioche lead the way towards flavours of fresh summer fruits and grapefruit along with candied peel, roast chestnut and apple tart. With fruit, freshness, balance, expressiveness, vivacity and finesse all at the same time, you may be surprised by Krug 2003.

Just five years after Joseph Krug founded his eponymous Champagne House in 1843, he documented his great vision for Krug in a cherry-red leather notebook. In it, he revealed the principles of creating a champagne of incredible richness yet great elegance, of selecting only the finest elements from the greatest terroirs, rejecting mediocre fruit and making both a non-vintage and a vintage cuvée - revolutionary at the time. Discovered in 2010 by current House Director and sixth generation of the founding family Olivier Krug, the ideals in this notebook and Krug's resolute commitment to them have secured their position as the most luxurious and exclusive of all Champagne producers.

Unlike other Champagne Houses, Krug's range consists of prestige cuvées only. Their iconic non-vintage Grande Cuvée is a masterful blend of some 120 wines, vintage Krugs are renowned as true classics, majestically displaying the characteristics of each harvest and their unique and exclusive single-vineyard champagnes, Clos du Mesnil and Clos d'Ambonnay are the ultimate rarities. The recent introduction of ID codes displayed on the back of every bottle - revealing base year, disgorgement periods and product information - has helped revise the vision of Krug in line with the great founder's philosophy.

Cellar Master: Eric Lebel
Winery Location: Reims | Champagne, France
Champagne Region: Montagne de Reims
Annual Production (bottles): Undisclosed

Download further information about Krug 2003 (564 Kb)

Brochure - Krug & Its People Summer 2014

Seven of the top Rated 25 Champagnes in last 25 years are Krug wine-searcher.com, 2nd May 2014

Susie & Peter TV Masters of Wine on Krug 2003 20th February 2014

Krug Release 2003 The Drinks Business, 3rd Feb 2014

Wine Spectator’s 2013 ratings confirm Krug as the best-rated Champagne House (584 Kb) 25th September 2013

Krug Wins 6 of top 10 Champagnes in Wine Spectator 2012 Awards Jan 2012

Interview with Olivier Krug wine-searcher.com, 30th Dec 2012

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Joseph Krug left his job at Jacquart Champagne to set up his own house with a very unique style in 1842. Joseph wrote in his cherry-coloured personal notebook the philosophy for Krug Champagne which is still followed today. The two beliefs he wished to share were: craftsmanship without compromise and no hierarchy within his champagnes. He believed that there should be only two cuvées: number one (now known as Grande Cuvée) should be the fullest expression of Champagne each year and number two should express the circumstances of an excellent and interesting vintage.

Today the sixth generation of the Krug family are still involved in all aspects of Krug Champagne. Independently owned by the Krug family for generations, Krug is now part of the luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH). Despite owning some 20 hectares of vineyards within Champagne, Krug is still a négociant producer of champagne, with the grapes used in Krug coming from long-term contract growers who are proud to declare that the grapes are destined for the production of Krug’s famous champagne.

In Champagne, the non-vintage cuvée is normally considered to be the ‘entry level’ champagne of that house. However, with Krug, this is not the case. Krug Grande Cuvée NV is the champagne, more than any other, to which connoisseurs aspire. With a reputation built upon quality and consistency, rather than volume and one-off successes in comparative wine tastings, Krug has built possibly the most enviable reputation in the whole of the region, simply by producing champagne of incredibly high quality, year after year, for the last 170 years.

Krug’s production is well under one per cent of the world’s Champagne – but it is often described as the Rolls-Royce of the industry. House devotees, who call themselves “Krugists’” include Ernest Hemingway, John le Carré, Sir Alec Guinness and Naomi Campbell.

The Krug range includes a tiny, 1.84-hectare vineyard in the village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger called Clos du Mesnil, protected from the harshness of spring frosts by being situated in the heart of the village and surrounded by houses helping to create a unique microclimate. This amazing plot creates the remarkable single vineyard cuvée, only produced in exceptional years. Although vines were first planted here in 1698, it has only belonged to the Krug family since 1971 and the first vintage was produced in 1979. “We had no clue what a gem it would be,” says Olivier Krug. “It’s a darling vineyard.”

Whereas most Champagne houses put all of their best grapes into making a single vintage, at Krug a sizeable proportion of the wine produced from the best grapes from declarable vintages are held back as reserve wines to be used in the Krug Grande Cuvée NV blend. The exact composition of each year’s release of Krug Grande Cuvée NV Champagne varies depending on many factors but typically each release contains around 120 different wines from 10 different vintages. Each bottle of Krug has a unique ID code which can be scanned using a smartphone App to discover the unique blend and personality of each bottle.

Another defining factor in the favour of Krug is the fact that all champagnes are fermented in small 205 litre oak barrels. Krug opt to use well- seasoned oak that imparts no specific oak flavour to their champagne, as it allows for a better exchange with oxygen. Once initial fermentation is complete, current Chef de Cave Eric Lebel leaves the Krug Grande Cuvée blends on their lees, the youngest of the wines in the blend being six years old and the oldest usually over twenty years old. This gives the champagne its richness and complexity, relating back to the original philosophy of Joseph Krug, producing “the fullest expression of Champagne every year”. Put simply, Krug are the most luxurious of all producers.